A day on Tickety Boo

I joined Gordon on Saturday to fish the Sharkatag event and club boat match. We didn’t have a great start in that we struggled to find fresh mackerel for bait as did a few of the other boats in this area. We made do with what we had and set off for a mark almost closer to the Isle of Man than Scotland. The forecast was for light winds with heavy and constant rain. For the first few hours it looked like we had dodged the worst of the rain but it wouldn’t last and we ended the day in some of the heaviest downpours I’ve fished in.

The objective for the club match was to catch Tope, Spur, Smoothhound, Thornback and Huss not easy but doable.



We got on the fish straight from the off catching a fish each on our first drop. We continued to get runs and hook ups landing fish and losing a few. We had a couple of tangles on the downriggers but when the tide was running hard they were pretty handy tools to have.

GG taking the strain of a nice Tope

A 30 pound male Tope
As the tide slackened off  the drizzle stopped and we had a few drifts over a wreck where we picked up Coalies, Cod and Pollack.

We went back to the Tope and picked up a few as well as a Huss for me. With the tide now in full flow we headed back in shore in search of some easier fishing as well as the other species on the target list.

The fishing was steady enough with Tope, Huss, Dogfish, Cod, Gurnard and a solitary Smoothie for Gordon. The rain was mental, so loud on the canopy of the boat that unless you were looking each other straight in the face you couldn’t hear a word of what was being said from 2ft away.

The boat canopy was a blessing on this trip

I had forgotten how strong Huss are when you try to handle them

As usual I had enjoyable day fishing with Gordon. This was despite some curios behaviour I discovered when reviewing the video footage from the trip.

We called it a day about 6pm. Gordon was staying down there to fish on Sunday. I had packed a lure rod. I fancied catching a Perch on the way home as I was passing somewhere I’d not fished for a while. Having been up since 5am I arrived at the loch at 7.30pm and have to admit, it was a struggle to get out of the car.

 

On my third cast with an SG Fourplay I picked up this little chap.

The next hour passed without incident and the need for sleep was catching up on me quickly. An end to the day was called before the midges started making things difficult.